Here are the latest Tri-Cities COVID deaths, new cases and vaccine news

Three more people have died of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area, the lowest weekly death tally since early August.

It was the third week in a row that the number of recent deaths reported have been in the single digits.

The number of new confirmed cases has been declining for eight weeks, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

But it takes longer for a decline in deaths to show up in statistics, both because of the length of time some people are seriously ill and the reporting process for deaths.

The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment in the two counties also has dropped, with the patient census on Friday down to numbers not seen routinely since July.

The deaths reported Friday bring total recent deaths for the month to 14, with deaths reported by the Benton Franklin Health District once a week on Fridays.

November is on track to have far fewer deaths than the 80 reported in October and 64 in September, which did not include a summer backlog of another 22.

The most recent deaths were all people 60 and older.

They included a Benton County man in his 60s, a Franklin County man in his 70s and a Benton County woman in her 90s.

They bring total deaths since the start of the pandemic in Benton and Franklin counties to 553, including 374 deaths of Benton County residents and 179 deaths of Franklin County residents.

Local public health officials verify that deaths are due to COVID complications by checking for a positive test result and that a coronavirus infection was named as a primary cause of death on the death certificate.

It can take several weeks for the district to receive and reconcile death information due to the reporting processes of medical facilities and coroner offices and the process of issuing and releasing death certificates.

Tri-Cities outbreaks

The number of COVID-19 outbreaks reported in the Tri-Cities is stable to decreasing, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

No current outbreaks in schools, childcare centers or health care agencies were reported in the latest COVID-19 situation report by the Tri-Cities based health district and Benton and Franklin counties’ emergency management agencies.

But there were six outbreaks in businesses, with 13 pending investigations, and four outbreaks in long-term care facilities, with three more characterized as “on watch.”

Twenty new cases of COVID-19 have been reported so far this month in residents or staff of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.

Tri-Cities vaccinations

The percentage of people in the Tri-Cities area vaccinated against COVID-19 increased by half a percent over the last week.

In Benton County, 50% of all residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and in Franklin County 45% of all residents are fully vaccinated.

That compares to 61% of all residents of the state.

No data is available yet for the number of children ages 5 to 11 who have received a dose of the vaccine, after the Pfizer vaccine was recently approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for that age group.

But nationwide an estimated 10% of children ages 5 to 11 have been vaccinated over two weeks, said Dr. Person.

Data also is not available for booster doses of the vaccine given in Benton and Franklin counties.

On Friday, the CDC recommended all adults who have received a Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine get a third “booster” dose six months or more after their second dose.

“Booster shots have demonstrated the ability to safely increase people’s protection against infection and severe outcomes and are an important public health tool to strengthen our defenses against the virus as we enter the winter holidays,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday.

“Based on the compelling evidence, all adults over 18 should now have equitable access to a COVID-19 booster dose,” she said.

Previously a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine was recommended and approved in Washington state only for people 65 and older and people ages 18 and older with underlying medical conditions or who work in high risk settings, including schools, factories and grocery stores.

Anyone can get a booster dose two months after their first dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Breakthrough cases, deaths

In all of Washington state, 9,086 deaths due to the coronavirus have been reported since the start of the pandemic.

Of the people who have died statewide, 721 were known to be vaccinated against COVID, according to the latest state Washington state Department of Health report issued Nov. 17 on vaccination breakthrough cases. They ranged in age from 35 to 103, with a median age of 79.

At least 268 of them were residents, or possibly staff, of long-term care facilities.

Information on deaths from breakthrough cases in the Tri-Cities is available only through September, when 16 fully vaccinated Tri-Cities area residents had died.

The other 194 deaths since January, when the vaccine became widely available, through September were in unvaccinated people.

No deaths due to the vaccine have been reported by medical officials in the Tri-Cities area.

About 28% of recent confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in the state of Washington have been in vaccinated people, according to data from the state Department of Health.

Reasons that breakthrough cases may have increased include the growing percentage of people vaccinated, COVID variants and possible waning immunity, according to the agency.

The vaccine continues to do a good job of preventing cases severe enough to require hospitalization or cause death, according to public health officials.

Tri-Cities cases

Although the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in the Tri-Cities area has declined for the eighth week, the rate of decline has started to slow, said Dr. Person.

New case rates are highest in ages 5 to 14 and 20 to 39, but the difference is not as dramatic as earlier in the pandemic, she said.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 269 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past week for an average of 38 new cases per day.

That is down from 42 per day on average last week and 50 per day the week before.

The combined new case rate for Benton and Franklin counties dropped below 200 on Friday, with 199 new cases reported per 100,000 people over two weeks.

It is the lowest new case rate since mid July.

Benton County’s rate reported on Friday was 188 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks and Franklin County’s rate was 223.

The four hospitals in the two counties reported 25 patients being treated for COVID-19 as of Friday, down from 49 a week ago.

The number of local COVID-19 hospital patients has not routinely been in the 20s since the first half of July.

Just 7% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals were being treated for COVID-19 as of Friday, down from as high as 32% in the peak of the last wave of cases.

Free at-home COVID tests

In another sign that the spread of COVID-19 is slowing, the percentage of positive test results at the free drive-thru testing site at Columbia Basin College off Argent Road in Pasco has dropped to 9%.

Five weeks ago 15% of test results were positive.

At the Richland walk-up free testing site at 975 George Washington Way the positive rate is 8%.

Benton Franklin Health District is working with the National Institutes of Health to deliver free COVID-19 test kits to households in the two counties. They give results in two minutes.

Kits can be ordered at SayYesCovidHomeTest.org.

The health district corrected information after earlier this week saying that households could place two orders.

Each household is limited to one order, but will receive enough supplies for eight tests per order, it said.

This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.